1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plate and an electric device attached to a body of an equipment by way of the plate, and particularly to a plate and an electric device attached to a body of an equipment by way of the plate with minutely adjustable angles relative to the equipment body.
2. Description of the Related Art
Equipments such as printers and personal computers include a paper forwarding mechanism and a head moving mechanism. The drive source for the paper forwarding mechanism and head moving mechanism is a direct current (DC) motor or a stepping motor. Recent printers and personal computers are increasingly miniaturized, and accordingly the DC motor and stepping motor to be incorporated into the paper forwarding mechanism and head moving mechanism are also miniaturized. Under the circumstances, it is becoming a critical issue in designing an equipment how a terminal of a motor should be oriented in order to efficiently utilize the space available inside the body of the equipment when the motor is attached to the body of the equipment.
To deal with this issue, there has been provided a motor which is combined with a plate for attaching the motor to an equipment allowing its terminal to be appropriately oriented relative to a body of an equipment. Examples of such a motor with a plate will now be explained with reference to drawings.
FIG. 17A is an elevation of a conventional motor, and FIG. 17B is a side elevation of the motor. As shown in FIG. 17A, a motor 60 basically comprises a stator 61 having an approximately cylindrical structure. The stator 61 has an approximately circular embossed support member 62 on its front end surface, which has its center positioned so as to coincide with a center O6 of the front end surface. The stator 61 also has six circular embossed orientating members 63-1 to 63-6 on the front end surface, which have their respective centers positioned equidistantly apart from the center O6 by a dimension L and equiangularly (60 degrees) from adjacent ones with respect to the center O6, in other words, the orientating members 63-1 to 63-6 are arranged at a regular interval along the circumference of a circle which defines the center O6 and a radius of the dimension L. The support member 62 is formed so as to rotatably fit into a support hole 71 formed in a plate 70 to be described later in FIG. 18. As shown in FIG. 17B, the stator 61 has, on its circumferential surface, a terminal block 65 with terminal pins which are connected to an unillustrated external circuit (hereinafter, terminal block with terminal pins is referred to as “terminal”). A rotation shaft 64 penetrates through the motor 60 at the center of the front end surface of the stator 61, and is otherwise exposed. The orientating members 63-1 to 63-6 are each formed so as to fit into any one of orientating holes 73-1 to 73-6 (refer to FIG. 18) formed in the plate 70 to be detailed later.
A more detailed explanation will now be made on the positions of the orientating members 63-1 to 63-6 with reference to FIG. 19A. FIG. 19A is a diagram for explaining the positions of orientating members. In FIG. 19A, the center O6 of the front end surface is assumed to be an origin, a line that passes through the center O6 and the terminal 65 is assumed to be a Y axis, and a line that passes through the center O6 and is orthogonal to the Y axis is assumed to be an X axis. As shown in FIG. 19A, the coordinates of the centers of the orientating members 63-1 to 63-6 are represented by an equation (9) below.                               (                                    x              j                        ,                          y              j                                )                =                              (                                          L                ·                                  (                                                            j                      ·                      π                                        6                                    )                                            ,                              L                ·                                  (                                                            j                      ·                      π                                        6                                    )                                                      )                    ⁢                                           ⁢                      (                          1              ≤              j              ≤              6                        )                                              (        9        )            
The aforementioned plate 70 shown in FIG. 18 is formed of a substantially circular plate of stairless steel or the like, and defines a center O7. A circular support hole 71 is formed in the plate 70 and has its center positioned so as to coincide with the center O7. The support hole 71 has a diameter substantially equal to the outer diameter of the support member 62 and therefore is adapted to rotatably fit to the support member 62. Two approximately circular screw holes 72A and 72B are formed respectively in both ends of the plate 70. The screw holes 72A and 72B have a diameter substantially equal to the diameter of two screws 31A and 31B provided at a body 30 (to be described later in FIG. 20) of an equipment. The screw hole 72A has one of the two screws 31A and 31B going therethrough, and the screw hole 72A has the other of the two going therethrough. The plate 70 further has six circular orientating holes 73-1 to 73-6 which have their respective centers positioned equidistantly apart from the center O7 by the dimension L and equiangularly (60 degrees) from adjacent ones with respect to the center O7, in other words, the orientating holes 73-1 to 73-6 are arranged on the circumference of a circle which defines the center O7 and a radius of the dimension L. The orientating holes 73-1 to 73-6 have a diameter substantially equal to the outer diameter of the orientating members 63 and therefore are adapted to fittingly engage with the orientating members 63.
The positions of the orientating holes 73-1 to 73-6 will now be explained in more detail with reference to FIG. 19B. FIG. 19B is a diagram for explaining the positions of orientating holes formed in a plate. In FIG. 19B, the center O7 of the plate 70 is assumed to be an origin, a line that passes through the center O7, the center of the screw hole 72A, and the center of the screw hole 72B is assumed to be an X axis, and a line that passes through the center O7 and crosses the X axis orthogonally is assumed to be a Y axis. As shown in FIG. 19B, the coordinates of the centers of the orientating holes 73-1 to 73-6 are represented by the equation (9), like the coordinates of the centers of the orientating members 63-1 to 63-6.
Next, a method of attaching the motor 60 to the body 30 by using the plate 70, and also a method of orientating the motor 60 relative to the body 30, that is, orientating the terminal 65 relative to the body 30 will be explained. First, the plate 70 is set to the motor 60 such that the support hole 71 fits to the support member 62, and such that the orientating member 63-1 fits into one of the orientating holes 73-1 to 73-6, with the other orientating members 63-2 to 63-6 fitting respectively into the other orientating holes than the one which has the orientating member 63-1 fitting thereinto. Then, the plate 70 which is set to the motor 60 as described above is attached to the body 30 such that the screw holes 72A and 72B engage respectively with the screws 31A and 31B which are provided at the body 30.
Thus, the motor 60 can be attached onto the body 30 by way of the plate 70. Further, by selectively changing the mating combination of the orientating members 63-1 to 63-6 with the orientating holes 73-1 to 73-6, the orientation of the motor 60 relative to the body 30, that is, the orientation of the terminal 65 relative to the body 30 can be set optimally.
The orientation of the terminal 65 relative to the body 30 will now be explained in more detail with a specific example. FIG. 20 is a diagram for explaining the orientation of the terminal 65 relative to the body 30. In FIG. 20, the center O6 of the motor 60 is assumed to be an origin, a line that passes through the center O6, the center of the screw 31A, and the center of the screw 31B is assumed to be an X axis, and a line that passes through the center O6 and crosses the X axis orthogonally is assumed to be a Y axis. An angle formed by the terminal 65 and the X axis is assumed to be θ.
As shown in FIG. 20, in a case where the support hole 71 is set to the support member 62 such that the orientating hole 73-1 fits to the orientating member 63-1, the angle θ is π/2(=90°). Likewise, in a case where the support hole 71 is set to the support member 62 such that the orientating hole 73-1 fits to the orientating member 63-2 [63-3, 634, 63-5, and 63-6], the angle θ is 5π/6 (=150°) [7π/6 (=210°), 3π/2 (=270°), 11π/6 (=330°), and π/6(=30°), respectively].
Thus, the motor 60 can allow the terminal 65 to be oriented in six ways relative to the body 30 in increments of 60 degrees.
However, in a case where the orientation of the terminal 65 must be adjusted more minutely, for example, in increments of 15 degrees, the motor 60 combined with the plate 70 described above does not work. In such a case, additional plates having an increased number of orientating holes arranged at a smaller interval are required. This results in complicating the management of components and also motor assembly.